Red Wings snap Bruins 10-game streak

Saturday

Nov 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2011 at 6:50 AM

Mick Colageo shares Five Things We Learned from the Bruins' shootout loss to the Red Wings Friday afternoon.

MICK COLAGEO

The Boston Bruins took the Detroit Red Wings to overtime on Friday afternoon at TD Garden, but wound up losing the game 3-2 in the shootout. The win streak ends at 10, but the Bruins took a point out of the game and will be back in the building 24 hours after they left it for tonight's home game against the Winnipeg Jets (7, NESN, 98.5). Here's a look at five things we learned at Friday's game:

Three things related to a long-established team culture that the Red Wings do at an elite level, regardless of who has come and gone from their roster. It could be Pavel Datsyuk or Darren Helm. From top to bottom, it's engrained: 1. They become Velcro when the opponent wants space (ie. they're really good at tying up sticks during puck battles without taking penalties in the process); 2. They master the art of making quick aggressive plays on the puck (or opponents) at the precise moment of importance and opportunity; 3. They always make good decisions on their scoring chances.

Dennis Seidenberg got the better of Tomas Holmstrom after the Detroit winger got too aggressive when Seidenberg had the puck. Feeling the hook of Holmstrom's stick on his side, the Bruins defenseman fell and an infuriated Holmstrom went to the box with a two-minute hooking minor. It was a rarity in that the Red Wings are rarely on the wrong side of the smart play: "He was mad at me, he thought I was diving. But I don't think I would ever dive, but that was his view, and that's why he got so mad at me," said Seidenberg. "But they're just a smart team; they know where to put their sticks and how to retrieve pucks in your feet. ... That's what makes it tough to play against them."

The winning streak is over, but the Bruins know well the difference between a proud performance and the W-L columns, "those imposters" as Rudyard Kipling referred to them. The Bruins were a better team Friday in falling to Detroit than they were in two of the last four wins of their streak. To their credit, asterisks are hard to find on the list of their victims. A 10-game win streak is too long not to be automatically legitimate anyway. And, Pittsburgh's and Washington's absences notwithstanding, the Bruins humbled the Senators, Maple Leafs and Sabres when those teams were red hot. So what if they only beat Columbus 2-1 and needed Tim Thomas' A-game to leave Montreal with two points? Friday they played a very good game against the league's best franchise of the past 20 years, one that still ices a formidable product.

If the Bruins can battle back to take the Red Wings to overtime on the first unofficial day of New England winter, then there's no escaping the projection of Father Time's effects on a team depending on a core of high-end players averaging 35 years old when we get to the other end of the cold season. The Red Wings are somewhat like the Big 3 Celtics circa. 1988-91: If the NBA held the playoffs in December, Boston would be the favorite. But the playoffs don't come until spring. When May and June roll around, Datsyuk is still going to be an absolute monster, but a 41-year-old Lidstrom will only be as good as his luck and mileage between now and then. Holmstrom, their physical leader, will be worn thin.

Boston's next win streak won't reach 10 games — safe prediction, you heard it here first — but the Bruins' reaction to losing indicates that there will be no departure from their accustomed level of confidence and their accustomed level of adherence to the game plan. "There are no regrets. When you play hard for the whole game and you lose in the shootouts, that's the way it goes sometimes," said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. "You can't get frustrated with that. It's too bad that we couldn't pull it out again, but that's just the way it goes. Just get ready for the next one." Said Tuukka Rask, who gave up the shootout winner to Todd Bertuzzi, when asked if this loss will stop the Bruins' momentum: "Yeah, we'll see next game, right? It's coming tomorrow."

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